Bullet Holes (Oneshot)
by bluedragon03
Summary: A gift for my friend Brandy tumblr user itschildofthefairies. A companion to a fic I have yet to publish but may still in the future. Mavis is very unhappy with her boyfriend. He didn't listen to her advice and got himself shot. She TOLD him that it was a trap, but did he listen, no. Now she has to stitch him up, and he bled all over her history homework. Jerk.
***A/N- For Brandy, whose birthday I missed bc I'm shit, lmao. This is the story I was telling you about. It's a companion to my Zervis HS AU "The Juxtaposition of Bullets and Textbooks" but that's never been published. This short story I was going to post and dedicate to you later once I'd gotten this far into the story, but I thought: screw it. I'll post it right now. So here it is, this chapter that you can read, but would have made more sense with some context. Oh well. Maybe You'll get context someday. (but probably not because I suck.)**

 _Sniff, sniff._

"Mavis…"

... _sniff._

"Mavis."

 _sniff._

" _Mavis."_

 _Sniff._ "What?" She snapped.

"Look at me." Mavis paused and clenched her teeth, doing her best to stop her hands from shaking. "Please," he added softly. Mavis sighed angrily and looked up at her patient, green eyes wet with tears. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, you're _sorry_ ," she huffed, turning her eyes back to the bullet hole she'd been stitching up. "How wonderful, that fixes everything, doesn't it?"

"I know you're angry-"

" _Angry?"_ She hissed. "Angry does not even begin to describe what I'm feeling right now, Zeref Dragneel." Zeref sighed.

"I suppose I deserve it," he said.

"Yes you do." She snapped, tying off the thread and cutting it a bit more forcefully than was really necessary. Zeref flinched, but didn't comment.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "It was stupid, I should have listened to you."

"Yes, you should have!" Mavis shouted, her sudden volume startling her still bleeding boyfriend. She slammed down her needle with blood stained fingers and glared up at him. "What was the point of asking me to provide your plan of attack if you were just going to ignore my instructions?"

"I wasn't thinking," he began, but she cut across him.

"That much is obvious. I told you it was a trap, but you didn't listen! You nearly got yourself killed, and you endangered the lives of the rest of the gang! Thank God the rest of them listened to me, or we would have had casualties, and no doubt half of us would be behind bars right now!" Zeref hung his head in shame.

Mavis softened, and felt her anger ebb away at the look on Zeref's face. She could tell that he was really and truly sorry. She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her, and Mavis saw that his own eyes were wet now as well.

"Don't be too hard on yourself," she said quietly, moving her hand to his cheek. "I think I've done that enough for the both of us." Zeref chuckled half heartedly, placing his hand over hers.

"It's all my fault the others got hurt," he whispered, his gaze falling to the ground again. Mavis lowered her head. She couldn't deny it, it was true after all. "I don't deserve their loyalty."

"That's not true," Mavis said, looking back up at him. "you care about them more than yourself, and even if it's misguided on occasion, you always follow your heart. You do what you believe to be right, and there is much to be said of the value of a man like that."

"But what happens if what I believe is right is wrong again, and someone ends up getting killed?"

"Then you must make up your mind to think before you act, and to take into consideration what others are telling you. You're a good man, and a good leader, but you aren't perfect, and you need to accept that." Zeref nodded, then offered her a small smile.

"How is it that you're so wise, Mavis?" Zeref took her hand in his, and pressed her knuckles against his lips. "You're so much smarter than me."

"That's discouraging," she said, smiling, "coming from my tutor. Don't tell me that Yury has been wasting his money on someone who doesn't know what they're doing?"

"Yury never paid me," Zeref pointed out. Mavis snorted.

"That's a relief." Zeref laughed, and Mavis shook her head, looking back down at the bullet wound she had just finished stitching up. There were three in total, and she had two more to go. "I think I might be the only girl in my High School who has stitched up bullet wounds on their boyfriend." She picked up the needle again, and shifted her gaze to the wound on his arm.

"You'll have to remove the bullet from that one," Zeref commented, wincing as Mavis examined it. Mavis winced as well. Stitching she could do, but digging around in her boyfriend's arm for a bullet? _No thanks._ Nevertheless, she did so, taking the curved nose pliers and removing the bullet, pretending she couldn't hear the sickening squelching sort of sound the bullet made when it pulled free from his skin.

Mavis grimaced and dropped the bullet onto Zeref's desk, then groaned when it rolled across the table-right onto her history homework. She had worked on that essay for _hours_ , and now it was ruined! She couldn't turn it in covered in blood!

"Awww!" She whined, setting down the pliers and picking up the assignment, forgetting that her hands were also covered in blood.

"You're just making it worse," Zeref interjected, taking the assignment from her hand and laying it on a stack of books, safely away from the bloodied instruments and offending bullets. It was too late to save the document, however, it was already stained with Mavis's bloody fingerprints as well as the trail where the bullet had rolled across it.

"It's all your fault!" She accused, pointing a bloody finger at him. "If you weren't such an idiot my homework wouldn't be ruined!"

"I'm terribly sorry," Zeref said, unable to keep a trace of his smile of amusement from gracing his features. "I'll rewrite it for you," he offered. She picked the needle back up and threaded it, preparing to stitch up the wound on his upper arm now.

"You better," she huffed, reaching up to stitch the wound on his upper arm. It was just about eye level for her, so she didn't have to stoop to do so.

Zeref took this opportunity to observe her, his hip leaning against the desk. They were in his office at headquarters, the door closed so they could have some privacy. Now that the pain medication had begun to kick in and he was sentient again, he could fully appreciate what these past few hours must have been like for her.

He couldn't remember much from when they'd brought him in, it was all a blur of shouting and crying. He must have been a real mess, and even though the wounds hadn't been major, his addled state must have frightened her. It must have been a frightful sight, him being half carried in by Serena and Neinhart, covered in blood. No wonder she had been so upset once she'd found out he was essentially fine. The blood he'd been covered in hadn't even been fresh, the bleeding had slowed to a near stop by the time they made it to his office, and half of it had come from Serena and Neinhart, who'd also been wounded.

Her green eyes, which had drawn him to her so mysteriously when they'd first met, were glowing in the lamp light. He'd asked her to turn the lights down when they started giving him a headache. He knew it wasn't ideal for stitching up bullet wounds, but she hadn't complained. He watched her eyes as she worked, narrowed slightly in concentration, flitting between the needle in her fingers and his torn flesh. He could barely feel the needle picking at him anymore, he was so focused on watching her.

A strand of her long, golden hair fell into her face, and he brushed it away without thinking. She made a small noise of surprise at the unexpected contact, and glanced up at him.

"Sorry," he said quietly. He glanced back up at her forehead and saw that he'd smeared blood there when he'd brushed away the strand. _Oh well,_ he thought. _It's not like she hasn't got it up to her elbows anyway._ Mavis nodded wordlessly and returned to her work, her focused expression never shifting.

Zeref quite liked that expression. Well, he liked all her expressions-except maybe the angry ones- but this one looked especially nice resting on her features in the dim light. He thought, not for the first time, that she resembled an angel. How lucky he was to have her, a beautiful girl who would stitch him up and yell at him at the same time. _Well,_ he thought, _I can do without that last part._

Mavis finished stitching up this wound and tied off the thread, more gently this time. She set down the needle and stretched her fingers, looking up at him again. Zeref felt the strong urge to apologize again, but didn't. She'd only just stopped yelling at him, and he was scared another apology would irk her once more.

"You're also probably the only high schooler who has been asked personally by a Gang Boss to come of with a battle plan," Zeref said, continuing their conversation from earlier.

"Probably, although if there were any others I'm sure the Gang Boss in question would actually listen to the high school girl."

"Probably." He agreed. When she looked into his eyes she saw another apology. She ignored it, not in the mood, and picked up the pliers again. Mavis knelt in front of Zeref so she could better reach the wound at his hip.

"Ready?" She asked. He looked down at her, then nodded, bracing himself against the desk. He winced a little and sucked in a breath when she reached in the bullet hole with the pliers. She froze and looked up at him. "Sorry! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," He replied, although his voice was strained. Mavis nodded, retrieving the bullet and laying it more carefully on the desk this time, lest it roll away and ruin more of her homework.

Mavis prepared the needle to stitch up this wound, and had just succeeded in placing the first stitch when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Zeref called, looking over his shoulder. Mavis glanced up briefly, but continued to focus on her work. She heard the door open, then jumped when the person who came in started loudly.

"Ahh!" Serena said, stepping back out as quickly as he'd come in. "I'm _so_ sorry! I thought you said come in!" Serena was speaking to them from the other side of the door now. Mavis and Zeref exchanged a curious look.

"He did," Mavis called.

"W-what?" Serna opened the door cautiously, peering around the edge of the door and sighing in relief when he spied the needle in Mavis's hand. " _Oh._ "

"What did you think we were doing?" Zeref asked, confused.

Serena's eyes widened, and he now looked vastly uncomfortable. It was hard to tell in the half-light, but Mavis thought he might have been blushing. _Now what's that about?_ Mavis wondered. She shrugged, chalking it up to another of the man's quirks.

"I-uh-nothing, Zeref. I was just going to see if you were ready to talk to the members."

"We're nearly done here," Mavis said, adding another stitch to Zeref's bullet wound. "Just give us another few minutes." Serena nodded and left again.

"Can't _you_ address the members?" Zeref asked quietly.

"No," Mavis said firmly.

"I don't think they want to hear from me right now, I nearly got them killed or arrested today."

"Which is _exactly_ why you have to be the one to do it. They need to see you, they need to know that you're sorry. They need to _see_ that you regret nearly getting them killed. They need to _see_ that you care about them. And it won't hurt that you're beaten to hell as well. You're hurt the worst out of anyone, so they'll know that this had consequences for you too."

"I'm not sure I can face them after this," he admitted.

Mavis finished stitching the wound and stood, sighing. She set the needle down and placed her hands on either side of his face, ignoring the bloody handprints she was leaving. She met his black eyes, so full of pain, but filled with a love for life behind that. She smiled softly at him, watching his guilty expression twist into a mournful smile- trying to protect her from his pain.

"Zeref," she said. She paused, perfecting what she was about to say. She wanted to make sure she got her point across perfectly so that there was no misunderstanding between them. "Your people love you. They trust you. They would not follow you into danger time and time again if it were not so. They believe in you, and your judgement. However, this time your judgement led them into peril, _that_ is why you are apologizing. Despite the fact that they trust you, they need to hear you say that you care about them, just as a reassurance.

"Your gang is made up of grown men and women who make their own decisions. They all knew the risks they were taking when they joined you, and I daresay that if they weren't prepared for a little danger they would not have done so. Everyone in this building decided to follow you, Zeref." Zeref sighed, then pulled Mavis closer to him, pressing her against his bare chest.

"How are you so smart?" He asked in an undertone, for the second time that night.

"I'm just that good," Mavis replied, a smile twisting her lips.

"That you are," Zeref mumbled, leaning in close and pressing his lips to hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and twined her fingers in his hair. Zeref's arms slid around her waist and pulled her tighter to him as he deepened their kiss. Mavis lifted herself onto her tiptoes so she could reach him better, when the door swung open and Serena barged in.

"Are you- ahh!" He turned away, shielding his eyes as if this would somehow give them more privacy. "I'm _so_ sorry!" He cried, his face flaming. Zeref sighed heavily.

"It's fine Serena. What did you need?"

"I-uh- well everyone is getting a little restless, I was wondering if you were ready yet."

"Yes," Mavis replied for him, grabbing a washcloth and wiping her hands and Zeref's face. "Just grab him a clean shirt." Serena complied, leaving a clean white shirt on the back of the desk chair while Mavis quickly bandaged his three wounds. She then proceeded to force him into a sling, to his displeasure. "You have to wear it or you'll pop your stitches!"

Mavis draped the white shirt over his shoulders, then declared him ready to speak to the rest of their crew.

"Just remember," she said, stopping him when they made it to the door, "that these people chose to follow you, their fates are not solely on your own shoulders." Zeref pulled her in for another quick kiss, then followed Serena down the hallway to the foyer, where everyone was gathered for him to address them.


End file.
